


Veritaserum

by unknowableroom_archivist



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Drama, One Shot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2007-07-27
Updated: 2007-10-04
Packaged: 2019-01-19 21:29:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 15
Words: 1,529
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12418536
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/unknowableroom_archivist/pseuds/unknowableroom_archivist
Summary: Dedicated to those moments when something snaps and, until you stop talking and the moment passes, you are as honest as you would be under veritaserum — whatever the cost, whatever the truth, whatever the pain the words bring.





	1. Lily to James

**Author's Note:**

> Note from ChristyCorr, the archivist: this story was originally archived at [Unknowable Room](http://fanlore.org/wiki/Unknowable_Room), a Harry Potter archive active from 2005-2016. To preserve the archive, I began manually importing its works to the AO3 as an Open Doors-approved project after May 2017. I e-mailed all creators about the move and posted announcements, but may not have reached everyone. If you are (or know) this creator, please contact me using the e-mail address on [Unknowable Room collection profile](http://www.archiveofourown.org/collections/unknowableroom).

“Why do you hate me?” James cries in frustration.

“Because we could have been great!” Lily explodes, momentarily shocked by her confession but barreling on without being able to stop herself.  “We could have been Lily and James!  If I wasn’t careful I could have ended up Lily Potter.  But you had to go after the one person I couldn’t ignore you tormenting.  The one person who made me see you as a sniveling, conceited cockroach.  All for the boy who called me a Mudblood.  We could have been so great.”

For the first time, he lets her flee unchased.


	2. Remus to Sirius

“What is it that you want to say?” Sirius exclaims in frustration.

“You did this!” Remus explodes, horrified at the words finally spilling out but unable to stop the avalanche.  “I asked you to come the night that they died!  I begged you to help me bury my _wife_.  The wife I _killed_.  If you had just come, I could have been your alibi.  You wouldn’t have rotted in Azkaban where I couldn’t save you; you wouldn’t be stuck here where I can’t release you!  You wouldn’t have left me alone.”

For the first time, he lets him transform unaccompanied.


	3. Petunia to Lily

“What did I ever do to you?” Lily yells in frustration.

“You chose him!” Petunia explodes, frightened of the truth but unable to repress it behind her self-control any longer.  “That freak treated me like a slug, attacked me, insulted me, _laughed_ at me, but you always chose him!  I’ve heard your friends talking.  I know you let him do the same thing to them.  You only stopped defending him when he went after you.  You let yourself hate me for that horrible boy!  You always chose him and sacrificed me.”

For the first time, she lets her condemn unchallenged.


	4. James to Lily

 A/N: About the Remus's wife thing: it's not canon which I realized confused some people.  It's just a nugget of possible characterization that I have always liked to add to Remus.  On another note, this is a companion piece to the first piece.

\------------------------------ 

 

“What do you want from me?” Lily demands in frustration.

“I want us to be great!” James explodes, alarmed but recklessly pulling the stopper that has held back his feelings for too long.  “I want you to see how I’ve changed!  I want you to see that I’m not the person you despise any more.  I want you to admit we could have it if you would just let us be – Lily and James.  I want us to be everything – what we could have been if I hadn’t screwed it up.”

For the first time, she lets him stare unstopped.


	5. Sev to Lily

“What can you possibly have to say to me?” Lily shouts in frustration.

“I lo-need you!” Severus explodes, mortified by his slip but willing to fall into hell itself if it would win her back.  “I would never hurt you!  Not on purpose.  I didn’t mean you, I never meant you.  I barely knew it was you shouting at Potter.  You are my only friend, how could you think I would hurt you?  I don’t care about anyone as much as you.  It’s only a word.  It can’t mean everything.  Please.”

For the first time, she lets him plead unheeded.


	6. Hermione to Ron

“Just say it then,” Ron sighs in frustration.

“How could you blame it on me?” Hermione explodes, her muffled rage a furious hiss like a gas leak she has no intention of plugging.  “You left saying it was because I chose Harry!  You made it my fault – my fault for making you think I like Harry better, my fault for not taking your side, my fault for not agreeing with you when you were acting like a prat.  How dare you make it my fault you deserted us?  _You_ left _me._ ”

For the first time, he lets her cry uncomforted.


	7. Andromeda to Ted

“Why won’t you talk to me?” Ted asks in frustration.

“Because you made me hate them!” Andromeda explodes, shocked by the words shooting through her impeccable breeding and unable to recall them.  “Because you made me hate my own reflection for its resemblance to Bellatrix!  Because everything I’ve ever done now feels dirty.  Because however horrible they are, they loved me.  Because I never judged them until I met you.  You made me see them for what they were, and I can never go back.  My family hates me.  I’m lost.”

For the first time, he lets her withdraw unescorted.


	8. Molly to Fleur

“Why won’t you accept me?” Fleur cries in frustration.

“Because you’re everything I’m not!” Molly explodes, a quiet unhinging quite unlike her usual bursts of anger but just as unstoppable.  “You’re everything I could never be!  I don’t want to think that my son wants someone so unlike me, someone who will take him away from me at every turn.  Someone I can never understand, so I’ll never really be part of my son’s life again.”

For the first time, she lets her vent unchallenged.


	9. Nymphadora to Remus

“Why can’t you accept that?” Remus screams in frustration.

“Then don’t act like you do!” Nymphadora explodes, an eruption visibly reflected in her appearance and not nearly as easy to restore.  “Don’t sit there the entire time I’m in St. Mungo’s then cry over Sirius in my lap!  Don’t clutch my hand like you’re drowning at the funeral!  Don’t always come to me when you need to talk.  Don’t stare at me for the length of Order meetings.  Don’t any of it!  Damn it, Remus, of course you love me.”

Not for the first time, he lets her leave unpursued.


	10. Snape to Lupin

“Why can’t you see any good in him?” Lupin snaps in frustration.

“Why can’t you see any flaws?” Snape explodes, spitting in impotent wrath words he’s longed to say to Dumbledore.  “He’s a boy without his mother’s talent or even his father’s, yet he’s led to believe he’s special!  He’s never reined in and has come to believe his actions have no consequences.  He has no discipline, yet he thinks he’s ready.  You line him up for the slaughter because he’s too like his father for you to see him clearly.”

For the first time, he lets him sit unmolested.


	11. Andromeda to Ted again

“Please just try to talk to me,” Ted pleads in frustration.

“I don’t know how!” Andromeda explodes, stunned by the emotions bursting through her impeccable breeding like an escaping groundhog.  “I can’t understand you, Ted!  I love you, I chose you, I gave up everything for you but I can’t think like you.  And I can’t reprogram myself overnight.  I don’t know how to be what you want, what you seem to think I am.  I’m scared I will never shed what keeps me from you, and I’ve already traded everything.”

For the first time, he lets her cry unanswered.


	12. Melchia to Barty, Sr.

“How can you ask this of me?” Barty growls in frustration.

“Because I never asked you for anything!” Melchia explodes, shocked by the strength she can muster through adrenaline and fury.  “I never even asked you to help him!  I never asked you do anything because you love me.  I never asked you to prove it, even say it.  But we can help him now.  I never asked you to love me until now.  You’re finally starting to wish that you’d told me every day.  This is your bill.”

For the first time in years, he lets her speak unignored.


	13. Remus to Nymphadora

“Then why are you here?”� Nymphadora demands in frustration.

“Because of course I love you!”� Remus explodes, hating himself but bursting apart as unstoppably as during the full moon. “Because I can barely breathe around you! Because it kills me to think of losing you. Because I know that if I love you you’re going to die, you’re going to leave me. You won’t be able to help it. All I can do is stall it. So I come here and guard your house. But I won’t add to your danger.”�

For the first time, she lets him stay unbothered.


	14. Alice to Frank

“Why are you taking it like this?  You barely knew the Potters,” Frank asks, bewildered.

“Because I wished for this,” Alice whispers.  Shame forces the words out before they destroy her, but she is fearful of their power once they are released.  “I wished he would pick Harry instead of Neville.  I wished for something – anything – to end our time in hiding.  I wished for that, even though I knew it could only happen over the Potters’ dead bodies.  And even now, I’m glad it wasn’t us.”

For the first time, he lets her see his own dark, shameful relief.


	15. Delores to Cornelius

“What did you _do_ at that school?” Cornelius vents in frustration.

“ _Any means necessary!_ ” Delores explodes, looking and feeling distinctly like an electrocuted cat.  “I stood toe to toe with Albus Dumbledore!  I made an enemy of half of Hogwarts.  I attacked a giant – no, I monitored one daily!  Because you said to bring Hogwarts under my control by _any means necessary_ – not ‘by playing nice’ or ‘without leading to awkward questions’ or ‘excluding Dementor attacks’ – I’m not ashamed!  Haven’t you learned yet that I do _exactly_ as my Minister requires?”

For the first time, she lets him gape unadmired.


End file.
